Imagining historical data

Instructions

As a group, discuss the following questions. Then, have one person (it doesn’t matter who) record your group’s answers using the form below. Your group name can be whatever you choose. Please note, however, that your group name, as well as your responses, will be visible to the entire class.

Source #1 • Advertisement in the New Orleans Argus (July 1828) •

Source #2 • Manifest of the Superb (April 1819) •

Source #3 • Bill of Sale for "Bill" (Jan 1835) •

Source #4 • Map of Cracklintown, Montgomery County, MD (1828) •

Source #5 • Record of Cotton Picked on Prudhomme Plantation in Louisiana (1836) •

Source #6 • Customs Record from Brig Tribune (1832) •

Group Name

If you had many, many more records like this one, and you decided to build a database based on the information they contained, what would you use as your primary key? Why?

What are some questions analysis of your dataset could answer?

Would you have any concerns about producing this dataset? If so, what would they be? Why?

Based on your answer to the previous question, what would you do to address your concerns?

What would your other fields (or variables) be? What would be the parameters and/or format of each field? Why?